Category Archives: UK news

UK’s Rwanda bill ‘incompatible with human rights obligations’

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Damning report by MPs warns policy places UK’s reputation for rule of law and human rights ‘in jeopardy’

The UK government’s controversial Rwanda legislation that deems the African country as a safe place to deport people to is fundamentally incompatible with Britain’s human rights obligations and places it in breach of international law, according to a damning parliamentary report.

MPs and peers from the cross-party joint committee on human rights have delivered a critical analysis of the safety of Rwanda bill, which is progressing at speed through parliament.

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More than 1.5m patients in England waited at least 12 hours in A&E in past year

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Lib Dems say last month an average of 5,735 people a day faced waits of 12 hours or more to be seen

More than 1.5 million patients in England had to wait 12 hours or longer in A&E in the past year, according to figures that MPs say lay bare the impact of the government’s neglect of the NHS.

Last month 177,805 patients faced waits of 12 hours or more to be seen in emergency departments, an average of 5,735 a day. It means one in 10 patients (12.4%) arriving at A&E waited 12 hours before being admitted, transferred or discharged.

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Why does the UK lag behind on cancer care? – podcast

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Britain’s cancer survival rates are improving but the UK still lags behind comparable countries. The Guardian’s health editor, Andrew Gregory, reports

The announcement last week that King Charles had been diagnosed with cancer has been met with sympathy and support for the 75-year-old. But alongside the focus on what it means for his future role as monarch, it has also led to a closer examination of what cancer care looks like in the UK in 2024.

For many, such as 37-year-old Nathaniel Dye, it has meant a diagnosis that has come too late. He has stage 4 bowel cancer, which has spread to other parts of his body. Dye has been told that in similar cases only 10% of people survive five years.

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Printworks London may reopen by 2026 after developers submit plans

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British Land and AustraliaSuper want to create cultural venue that will include offices and shops

Printworks London, the 6,000-capacity post-industrial superclub, could reopen by 2026 after property developers that own the site filed their plans to Southwark council.

British Land and its partner AustralianSuper, one of the country’s largest pension funds, submitted a detailed proposal to the council on Monday to redevelop the site in Rotherhithe into a permanent cultural venue just over a year after the cavernous club shut its doors.

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More than 11 million Britons have less than £1,000 in savings

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Resolution Foundation calls for auto-enrolment into saving schemes, as millions have no ‘rainy day’ fund

More than 11 million working-age people in Britain don’t have basic “rainy day” savings of at least £1,000, according to a report that warns that the poorest households are struggling to build up financial resilience amid the cost of living crisis.

The Resolution Foundation said people across Britain faced a “triple savings challenge” of insufficient savings, an inability to cope financially with major life events such as family breakdown, and inadequate retirement incomes.

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Michael Gove says no-fault evictions will be banned this year

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UK housing minister promises section 21 evictions in England will have ended by time of general election

Michael Gove has vowed that no-fault evictions will be banned this year, as he warned separately that democracy was under threat if young people were shut out from owning their own home in future.

Ministers have come under fire in recent days from campaigners who have said its bill to get rid of so-called section 21 evictions in England, whereby landlords can remove tenants for no reason, is inadequate. The ban was also a pledge made in the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto.

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‘Places of the living’: bishop of Norwich calls for churchyards to be rewilded

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Graham Usher urges Church of England to look into this ‘often very ancient land’, as it prepares to vote on increasing biodiversity

Churchyards should be rewilded to increase biodiversity and to make them “places of the living, not just the dead”, a Church of England bishop has said.

Local parishes are responsible for about 7,100 hectares (17,500 acres) of churchyards in England. The C of E also owns about 34,000 hectares of farmland, mostly let to tenant farmers, and 9,300 hectares of forestry.

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Scrap trigger warnings for theatre audiences, says Ralph Fiennes

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Audiences should be ‘shocked and disturbed’ by the impact of theatre, says Schindler’s List and Harry Potter actor

Trigger warnings for theatre audiences should be scrapped because people should be “shocked and disturbed” by what they see, the actor Ralph Fiennes has said.

The warnings are issued before the beginning of a performance to alert audiences to upsetting or distressing content and have become increasingly commonplace in theatres.

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Fujitsu bosses have been paid £37m since it won Post Office contract

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Spotlight turns on seven executives who presided over Horizon contract that led to huge miscarriage of justice

Bosses at Fujitsu have collected about £37m in pay, bonuses and compensation for loss of office since the technology company won the contract to supply the software at the heart of the Post Office Horizon scandal, it has emerged.

Accounts going back 25 years reveal the seven-figure sums paid out to executives of the UK division of the Japanese-owned technology company, even as more than 900 people were prosecuted as a result of flaws in the system their company supplied.

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Private tenants in Scotland face ‘big rent rises and mass evictions’ from April

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Campaigners say renters served notices of increases of 30% to 60% in advance of cap and other emergency protections ending

Private tenants in Scotland are facing big rent rises and mass evictions as emergency protections expire at the end of next month, campaigners have warned.

The Scottish government has “in effect rubber-stamped rent increases from April”, says Ruth Gilbert, the national campaigns chair of the Scotland-wide tenants’ union Living Rent, while transitional measures are inadequate and confusing, leaving many unaware what their legal rights are.

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MoD firefighters’ pensions delayed after Capita Group blunders

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Trade union Unite tells of concerns about 2025 contract to administer civil service pension scheme

Retired firefighters who were responsible for tackling blazes on military bases have been unable to access their full pension due to “numerous” blunders by the outsourcing group Capita, it has emerged.

Capita won a £525m contract to run the Ministry of Defence’s fire and rescue service in 2019, renaming it the Defence Fire and Rescue Project (DFRP) after the privatisation.

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‘It’s completely divided’: British Iranians torn over Middle East crisis

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Escalation of conflict causing tensions within community and fears about war spreading to Iran

Iranians living in the UK have described deep divisions in the community since the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

The deadly attack by Hamas in Israel on 7 October and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza have led to tense conversations among British Iranians, they say.

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Grisly secrets of the ‘disappeared’ of Anglo-Irish war uncovered by research

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Irish state’s founding fathers killed and disappeared five times more people than Provisional IRA would do over 30 years

The Irish Republican Army’s executioners shot and secretly buried their victims in fields and bogs, leaving them to decay and enter the ranks of Ireland’s “disappeared”.

Some were British soldiers, others were suspected informers or turncoats. Uncertainty about their fate and the location of their remains added a cruel twist to a brutal conflict.

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Fujitsu won £1.4bn in new government contracts after court ruling on Post Office software bugs

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MPs find Treasury-affiliated bodies have engaged Horizon firm since damning 2019 high court judgment

The Japanese technology company Fujitsu, whose flawed technology for the Post Office led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters, is confirmed to have held contracts worth more than £3.4bn linked to the Treasury since 2019.

Figures published by the Commons’ treasury committee show £1.4bn of contracts were awarded to Treasury-affiliated organisations after a high court ruling in December 2019 over the company’s software. The judgment found that “bugs, errors and defects” in Fujitsu’s Horizon system could cause shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts.

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Fluffy the alligator snapping turtle with ‘nasty bite’ found in Cumbrian tarn

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Dinosaur-like creature that can cut through bone rescued from Urswick Tarn, near Ulverston

It’s been named Fluffy, but its spiky appearance and “nasty bite” means only the brave – or the foolish – would attempt to offer this particular turtle a cuddle.

The dinosaur-like creature, an alligator snapping turtle that can cut bones and is native to swamps and rivers in southern parts of the US, was rescued from a tarn in Cumbria on Monday.

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We’ve given up the fight, say top Tories as byelection defeats loom

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Senior Conservative says party has descended into ‘death spiral’ as poll losses set to fuel fresh attacks on Sunak’s leadership

Conservative MPs on Saturday night predicted fresh attacks on Rishi Sunak’s leadership within days, as they accused their own party of surrendering to Labour without a proper fight in two formerly safe Tory seats where byelections will be held this week.

MPs from across the party complained that losses in Wellingborough and Kingswood on Thursday had already been “priced in”, as one senior figure said defeatism had set in, with the party having descended into a “death spiral”.

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UK farmers vow to mount more blockades over cheap post-Brexit imports

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Inspired by French action, British campaigners say they will continue slow tractor protests after Dover roads were blocked

Farmers say there will be further French-style blockades following a slow tractor protest at Dover against low supermarket prices and cheap food imports from post-Brexit trade deals.

Around 40 tractors and other farm vehicles blocked roads around the Kent port for several hours on Friday evening by driving slowly and carrying signs with slogans such as “No More Cheap Imports”.

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Baker’s version: UK woman creates lifesize Taylor Swift cake for Super Bowl

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Cake depicts Swift wearing a sweatshirt of the Kansas City Chiefs – her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team

A baker who has created a lifesize Taylor Swift cake for Sunday’s Super Bowl said it was the “perfect opportunity” to finally get around to making it.

The cake sculpture by Lara Mason, from Walsall in the West Midlands, has racked up more than 3m views on TikTok.

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C of E refutes claims of ‘conveyor belt’ of asylum seeker fake conversions

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Suella Braverman and a former priest accuse church but Justin Welby says its role has been mischaracterised

The Church of England has refuted a claim that it operated a “conveyor belt for asylum seeker fake conversions”, saying parish records disproved the eye-catching allegation.

Churches have been at the centre of a storm over “fake conversions” in the past week after it emerged that Abdul Ezedi, the Afghan man suspected of a chemical attack on a woman and two children in Clapham, was granted asylum on his third attempt after converting to Christianity. Police said on Friday that Ezedi was believed to be dead.

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‘To me it’s a fad, a fashion’: rising demand for dog-friendly UK holidays divides opinion

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The Covid boom in pet ownership has led to operators offering plenty of pet-friendly accommodation. But is it really such a good idea?

Go on holiday without your best friend? For growing numbers of dog owners, it’s unthinkable.

Holiday operators have seen a big jump in guests booking accommodation that accepts dogs in recent months, and the trend is set to accelerate this year.

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